“Trust me, it’s light work. It’s a home game for the Sharks, and a Thanksgiving one at that, they’re getting off easy with my price. You never checked on my site, did you?” I shook my head.
“This weekend alone the catering company I hired will cover a full-course meal for whoever rents the suite. I’m talking turkey, ham, the whole damn meal. Not to mention the parking and alcohol is included, open bar style. The suite holds twelve people comfortably, with room to add up to six more people seated at the bar.”
“Well damn, maybe I should book. The guys and I include games during our festivities. Have you listed the Royals for Christmas yet?” I half-ass joked. I would do it just to give her the money.
“Not yet. I hold those suites until the end. But if my baby daddy wants them, I might have to up the price then. Can’t have people thinking I’m giving out discounts because you’re my baby daddy,” she said playfully as she rubbed her belly and closed the laptop then stood.
I cringed at her words as I heard Tino’s playing in my head.
It’s giving raggedy baby daddy.
“You can call me a bunch of things I would rock with, but that ain’t my title. I’m your man, boyfriend, Peanut’s father. Your partner. Shit, even Ace Boon, but never baby daddy. I will never refer to you as my baby momma, McKay, especially when you are more than that.”
“I’m sorry and you’re right. But you left off my favorite name for you, Plant Daddy.” That had me smirking as I got up to help her with her jacket since she already had her shoes on.
“You and this nickname. C’mon, let me treat you like a good man should and drive you around and cater to you and Peanut’s food needs,” I said as she left my space, headed for the door.
“And my books. I’m counting this as a date,” she yelled, headed out of the door.
We had beenin Mahogany’s bookstore for the last forty minutes, with me being a doting boyfriend and holding the stack of books McKay kept adding to. All baby books.
“Ooh, I promise this is the last one, BK. I know you’re ready to go.” I snorted because she had said those words three times at this point. I wasn’t tripping though. I was enjoying this, our time, and wasn’t in any rush considering I still had to feed them. We stopped here first since McKay wanted Nawlins and they had a waitlist of an hour and a half.
“Baby, I told you, you’re cool. Get what you feel you need.” I glanced over to see her scanning a baby name book before grabbing another one to compare it.
“I don’t really need a name book since I can search everything online, but I feel like I’m missing some since I don’t know where to find certain names. And this one is more African American?—"
I leaned down and kissed her cheek, cutting her off while grabbing both from her hands.
“Baby, you can get both. Picking a name is an important part of the process. If it takes us a million online searches and fifteen thousand books, then put it on my tab. We should pick the perfect one for Peanut.”
Us and we.
By the time I caught the slip, it had already left my mouth but I noticed it only caused McKay to smile harder as she nodded.
“Okay, you’re right.” The sound of her stomach growling had her rubbing Peanut who was growing tired of waiting.
“Ugh, how much longer? At this point, I can feel the back of my stomach in my toes,” she whined as she tossed her head back, looking up at me.
At this moment, if I could stop time and keep us here like this but steadily falling in love, I would do it.
“We can head out. If they aren’t ready, I’ll get you a pre-appetizer to take the edge off.”
“Oh gosh, don’t say it like that. I don’t need a pre-appetizer. Just a little snack. Ooh, a shake from BJ’s would hold me over.” She perked up as her eyes stretched wide. I tucked my bottom lip to hold my laugh while I nodded.
“Okay.”
We checked out and made our way across town to Nawlins just in time for our table to be ready. The slight fall of McKay’s face had me snickering. I knew she was banking on that shake from BJ’s still and was upset it wouldn’t happen now.
“We can get the shake after, M&M,” I whispered into her ear as my hands instinctively moved to her waist to guide her movements to follow the hostess.
Once we had our drink orders in, McKay wasted no time going in with thetalk. But what she said blew my mind.
“So, I know we should talk about Saturday, and I promise we will, especially after I say this.” There was a brief pause before she continued. “I want to add sex to our arrangement.”
I knew we would be the topic of conversation, just not how she presented us. I didn’t know what to say or how to react.
Chapter
